Sunday, December 15, 2024

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Gravity": Notch: a literary and arts magazine

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Notch: A Literary and Arts Magazine call for submissions on theme of "Gravity."

Gravity wears many faces. We feel it in moments, see it in the tides, remember it when pulled into people’s orbit. The ebbs and flows of creative inspiration are well known to artists—muses appear as though in response to mysterious cosmic forces entirely out of our control.

The transition from Newtonian gravity to Einstein's theory of General Relativity marked a profound shift in our understanding of the universe. Gravity was no longer seen as a force exerted by masses on the background of unchanging space and time. Rather, it became an emergent property of the curvature of spacetime, challenging notions of constancy and objectivity.

Gravity is the language of the relational: any two beings in the universe are connected through the fabric of spacetime. Its abstract power looms large in the interpersonal. We each have experiences that feel denser than others; moments whose weight eclipses their duration on a clock or calendar. In some cases, we find ourselves orbiting a past experience, our lives resisting the inevitable march from past to future as life’s timeline metamorphoses into a parabola. As with any planet, the gravitational force of these moments gets weaker with distance, but distance is not easily achieved. Once we are in orbit, a third presence with mass and energy is needed to break free and achieve escape velocity.

While Einstein’s theory explained macroscopic movements, quantum mechanics developed to describe the behavior of particles at subatomic scales. To this day, these two theories exist on parallel planes and have resisted all attempts for unification.

In this issue, Notch is interested in exploring this space of the ununifiable. Please share works that honor the strange and mysterious, exploring themes of weight, time distortion, singularity, wormholes, and light.

We are looking for new and strange, excellent and mystifying, sharp. Send us work that sparks imaginative discourse, ideas to take our breath away and mull over for days to come.

Literary
Previously unpublished fiction exploring asymmetrical orbits, poetry playing with density, essays rescuing excellent works from obscurity, comparative criticism stitching together unexpected forms…

A thoughtful connection to the theme is much appreciated.

First serial considerations are welcome. Works in translation are encouraged.

Pieces up to 1500 words are preferred. Longer work is considered on occasion.

Visual
Photographs that distort their centers, brushstrokes with unexpected velocity, sculptures that call upon the sediment from which they came, textiles that mirror spacetime, collages that clash the micro and macroscopic, film that warps the curvature of light...

Or something completely different.

Please send a high resolution image of your art along with its specs. Artist statement optional.

Other
Dance that anchors in air, floral arrangements morphing through time and space, tattoo flash sheets that spark momentum, mathematical equations illustrating how black holes scramble causality, set lists that nail the drop, a puppet show whose pacing defies the insistent pull of gravity...

Please send a link or a high resolution image or audio file. Artist statement optional.

Submissions close January 6, 2025

Contributors will be compensated


To submit, email your work and a
brief bio to:

submissions@notch.ink

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